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It is January, which means that after two months of nominations, it is time to elect the 2013 Bus Riders Union Planning Committee. Made up of 5 volunteer members and 4 staff members, the Planning Committee (PC) is the decision making body for the Bus Riders Union. An introduction to the 10 volunteer members running for PC this year.

CRC is calling for non-violent schools, holding candlelight vigils and organizing to stop the expansion of police in our schools. Today Los Angeles grade-school students returned from the holidays to be greeted by 600 armed patrols at LA Unified School District (LAUSD). Just yesterday, Sheriff Arpaio unveiled armed volunteer posses at schools in Maricopa County, Arizona. Last month, Senator Barbara Boxer introduced a federal bill to send the National Guard into schools.

In the fight for educational justice, the struggle to keep public schools public has become as critical as ending the school-to-jail track. In Los Angeles, two historic Black high schools, Crenshaw HS and Dorsey HS, face daunting "reconstitution" that will undermine community leadership and roots. On Jan 12, we will gather with grassroots organizers from Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia to explore what forces are driving school privatization and how they intersect with forces behind the school-to-jail track.

By sending 600 armed LAPD patrols into our children’s schools, let us be clear that we are responding to violence with violence. Before we fall headlong down this path, we hope that LAUSD will reconsider and reflect deeply on the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: 'The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy…. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.'

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the mainstream media has begun to talk about climate change in a new way. This article from the HuffPost Green is one of the few to tie climate change and mass transit together.

The attached document is the statement that CJA/Just Transition Campaign groups are putting out post Sandy. It has evolved out of 2 different pieces that Ife, Kandi, and Movement Generation had drafted. It includes a new quote from a Grassroots Intl partner from Haiti and it names us as community groups & movements engaged in developing a Just Transition campaign.

The bid by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to extend an existing transportation sales tax until 2069 failed to meet the necessary 2/3 threshold, delivering a setback to the Mayor's gentrifying and polluting vision for transportation expansion

LA Metro's rail expansion plan under Measure J and R can lead to less transit ridership with continued hikes in fares and bus service cuts. As voters are asked once again tomorrow to extend a regressive sales tax measure funneling another $90 billion, will LA Metro's rail expansion plan deliver skyrocketing transit ridership for the region and reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution as touted by it's proponents? Our answer is "no" based on history and experience of the last 20 years of rail experiment.

The MTA claims that Measure J will help the environment. But did you know that the MTA has made a deal with the devil, that at least 20 percent of the Measure J funds will go to freeway expansion? How in the world can we combat greenhouse gases and air toxins by expanding the freeways again and again? When will we restrict auto use? But what if the MTA is really a rail construction agency?

Emily Badger of Atlantic Cities examines the growing trend of transit unions, starting with the model of the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union. She also examines how the changing economic landscape and the subsequent dismantling of support for transit has driven communities to organize.